Dumanis won't seek re-election as district attorney in 2018

After dismissing rumors last year about her future plans as “pure speculation,” District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has now confirmed she will not seek re-election in 2018.

Dumanis, who has been the county’s top prosecutor for 14 years, told her staff of the decision in a Tuesday morning email. She shared the news Monday with The San Diego Union-Tribune but asked that it not be made public until she could tell her staff.

She said she did some soul-searching over the holiday season, and consulted with family and colleagues before making the decision.

Dumanis said she has not decided whether she will complete her current term or step down sooner, and she has no concrete plans for what she will do after she leaves office, echoing comments she made to the Union-Tribune in October, when asked to address local chatter about her political future.

“I think I was considering all options then,” Dumanis said on Monday. “But, you know, considering it and making the decision are two different things. … It’s one thing to talk about it and say it’s a possibility. It’s another thing to really come to terms with it.”

Getting to this point — where she had made the firm choice not to seek a fifth consecutive term and was ready to reveal it to her staff and the public — has been difficult, she said.

She said she is satisfied with how the District Attorney’s Office has evolved and is “feeling comfortable that we’ve gotten things at a place where it’s stable, where we’ve got great talent within the office.”

“I have other things to do. I’ve been in public service now for 42 years and, you know, I just thought the timing was right,” Dumanis said.

People who have worked closely with Dumanis said Tuesday she has been a conscientious district attorney who made public safety a priority while being open to other points of view.

“I think it’s a big loss for the law enforcement community and the legal community in San Diego,” said county Public Defender Henry Coker, who said Dumanis has recognized the effects of mental health on a defendant’s behavior as well as the long-term effects of child abuse and neglect.

Sheriff Bill Gore said Dumanis has been a good partner in dealing with San Diego County’s response to major changes to the way criminal justice is handled in California, including actions at the state level that put more responsibility on local law enforcement to handle low-level criminals.

“Collaboration is critical and she’s done a great job of that,” Gore said.

Lawyers who worked under Dumanis commended her leadership.

“Throughout her tenure as San Diego’s District Attorney, she has always been tremendously supportive of every member of this team — giving us the tools and support needed to fulfill her motto of ‘doing the right thing,’” Steven Walter, president of the San Diego Deputy District Attorneys Association, said in a statement. “Bonnie has set a very high bar for her successor — she will be missed.”

Her future plans and who might replace her have been a topic of much discussion within the county’s legal and political communities.

If she were to resign before her term ends, the county Board of Supervisors would make an interim appointment to fill the position until an election is held. One name that has come up repeatedly is Summer Stephan, a chief deputy under Dumanis.

In October, Dumanis said she would support Stephan if she wanted the job, but she would not say whether she had handpicked Stephan or anyone else as her successor.

It read in part: Dumanis “does not have a retirement date but her succession plan is to have Summer take over as DA and Dave Greenberg take over as (assistant) DA.”

Stephan has served as chief of the North County branch of the District Attorney’s Office, chief of the district attorney’s sex crimes and stalking division, and most recently has led the office’s efforts to combat human trafficking.

Greenberg, another chief deputy in Dumanis’ office, is a veteran prosecutor and former head of the North County branch.

Stephan was out of the office Tuesday in meetings related to her work on human trafficking issues. Reached by phone, she declined to comment at this time about her future plans.

On Monday, Dumanis would not say whether she had groomed Stephan or Greenberg to take her place, but she said broadly that she had helped prepare all top-level members of her staff for the challenges of the office. She said it’s been her policy to transfer deputies every five years or so, which she acknowledged “doesn’t always go over well” but helps the lawyers expand their experiences and grow professionally.

“The voters will decide who takes over from here,” Dumanis said, adding that whoever succeeds her will likely have their own priorities for the office. “I would hope that they would continue some of the things that I’ve done.”

If she doesn’t step down early, the race will soon be on for the next district attorney. The first step will be raising money for what can be an expensive countywide campaign.

“Anyone seriously considering this would want to get an early start on fundraising,” said veteran San Diego campaign consultant Tom Shepard.

State laws require a candidate to form a campaign committee before raising any funds.

“For that reason, it probably would be advantageous for anyone considering getting into this race to get a committee formed as soon as possible” Shepard said.

Dumanis didn’t point to any particular case as a high-water mark but said she has been proud of her office’s long-standing practice of meeting with victims’ families before she decides whether to seek the death penalty, and she said she is proud of hiring people to work in the office who reflect the community’s diversity.

She commended the people who have worked with her over the years to seek appropriate resolutions to challenging and often emotional cases.

“We’ve certainly had some high-profile cases, and I’m proud of the way our folks have handled those high-profile cases,” she said.

In her corner office at the downtown Hall of Justice, the district attorney has framed photos on her desk of a couple of well-known crime victims, including 17-year-old Chelsea King of Poway, whose body was found in 2010 near Lake Hodges.

Chelsea was one of two girls — the other was 14-year-old Amber Dubois of Escondido — killed by a convicted sex offender who lived with his mother in North County. In a deal with defense lawyers, Dumanis agreed to take the death penalty off the table if the killer pleaded guilty to both murders and led investigators to Amber’s remains.

He was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole.

Dumanis also highlighted the office’s efforts to combat cyber crime and elder abuse, reach out to community members around the county and promote a concept known as re-entry, in which government works to help offenders gain the life skills, education and job training they need to be successful out of custody.

One of the more controversial moments of her tenure came in 2014, when more than 30 defendants were charged under a mostly untested gang conspiracy law that holds active gang members liable for the crimes of others as long as the defendant willfully assists, promotes or benefits from that crime.

Superior Court judges dismissed the conspiracy charges against many of the defendants, some of whom were tried because of postings they made on Facebook or song lyrics they had written. Several defendants were convicted of other felonies.

Dumanis said later that she had no plans to file more cases under that law.

Last year, she testified in federal court in the case of a wealthy Mexican businessman who was ultimately convicted of funneling money to her and other San Diego mayoral candidates in 2012. It is illegal for a foreign national to contribute to political races in the U.S.

Dumanis, who lost her bid for mayor, said in court that she had a couple of “meet and greet” encounters with the businessman, José Susumo Azano Matsura, but she did not discuss financial arrangements with him and she was unaware of his immigration status.

Dumanis, a former prosecutor and Superior Court judge, was elected district attorney in November 2002 after a highly contentious race against then-incumbent Paul Pfingst. She took office the following January and has held it ever since, even through a health scare last year when she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“I never missed much of a beat,” she said of working while battling the illness, for which she underwent surgery and radiation and is now cancer free. “Other than the aging process, my health is good.”

Now 65, Dumanis said it’s time for someone else with a fresh outlook to take the helm.

But letting go, whenever that happens, won’t be easy.

“It’s really profound to me the sadness that I feel about leaving a job that I love so much, the people that I love so much,” Dumanis said. And she said she feels honored to have served the public as district attorney.